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bighat

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Everything posted by bighat

  1. bighat
    I know what you mean. Things like "season's over" and that kind of talk is a bit extreme in my opinion. But, this is clearly the worst stretch of the year for this team. If we're on a roller coaster, we're on the way down and nobody knows where the bottom is. Criticism is warranted.Fans should be frustrated and I see no reason for Twins fans to bite their tongues with all that's happened (and more importantly, NOT happened) in the past few weeks. I guess I'm just saying that while I agree we shouldn't jump ship, I do think there are plenty of reasons to be frustrated as a fan. Aside from Berrios, Odorizzi and Rogers, there's nobody on this staff that pitches well consistently. Some are OK part of the time, and others are downright terrible. Other teams are making trades and the Twins are picking up DFA'ed garbage scraps. We're losing. Indians aren't. Things are as bad as they've been all year. Sure, could be worse...but should we really be ecstatic that we're not 24 games out like we are 3/5ths of the time?
  2. bighat
    Of course he homered last night... But yeah, I've noticed most of his home runs and stats are coming in low-pressure (aka "garbage time") situations. In his defense, the HR last night was a kickstarter and he also had a HR on the road in Tampa that ended up being huge (but wasn't at the time he hit it). We're not the only ones who see this. He's found his way to the bottom of the order and has seen playing time decrease. I like the idea of starting him vs. lefties, I'd prefer to see him in the lineup 2x per week at this point, no more. His defense is normally good, that error he made against the Mets proved costly though. He is absolutely awful with men on base and also has the worst "productive outs" rating on the entire team by a long shot. He pretty much is a guaranteed strikeout with anything on the line. He'll swing right through anything in the dirt and anything high and outside with regularity. If I know this, every team in MLB knows this.
  3. bighat
    Everyone's had their rests. Including legitimate (Sano, Rosario, Garver) or phantom (Cruz, Cron, Gonzalez) IL stints. Let's start running the "A Team" out there every single night and put together some wins. When I think about it, Willians Astudillo makes a huge difference. The offensive guys seem to play better when he's around, at least in my mind. When that guy's on the 25-man roster this team has a spark. Like everyone else I've seen the La Tortuga hype rise, fade, and rise again...but there's something about Willians that makes the rest of the team play harder. The Twins have had their best moments while that guy's in the dugout wearing a uniform.
  4. bighat
    Was also kinda scratching my head seeing Rogers in the 9th. But as a few others have mentioned, it's clear that Rocco wanted to nail down a series win. I think we can all get behind that philosophy. I'm guessing Berrios is champing at the bit to go 7+ and do his part today. No better guy to have on the mound when your best reliever is unavailable, in my opinion. Hope Bux is OK. With his history of migranes, I sure hope that collison with the turf didn't do any damage to his dome piece. Schoop's been looking bad on offense. Dude's clearly pressing and it's not pretty to watch. Still has a great arm and solid defense but it would be nice to see him inb better form coming out of the break. He wasn't doing well before the break, either. Should see Sano, Adrianza today. Looking forward to getting Eddie Rosario back very soon and Cron next week. Hope none of those injuries linger.
  5. bighat
    Yeah, if you put money on the Indians in Vegas or if you're a Cleveland fan, you see it as a "bad beat". From one of their fan pages: "Goody got a little anxious on a Miguel Sano groundball hit right to him and couldn’t make a throw to first, and three batters later Francisco Lindor almost made a spectacular play to throw out Max Kepler, but he was a half-second late. A batter after that, Oscar Mercado terribly misplayed a Jorge Polanco fly ball and suddenly the Twins had their first lead of the night at 4-3. If even one of those things broke the Indians’ way, maybe this game ends differently." That said, the ball didn't exactly bounce the Twins way either. Miguel Sano hit a double off the top of the wall with a man on 1st. Arraez was kinda deeked by the OF and didn't score on that double. And Sano was just THIS CLOSE to hitting it out. If that ball goes 5 more feet it's a 3-3 ball game and the rest is a moot point. So keep in mind while the Twins got lucky, the Indians were pretty lucky too.
  6. bighat
    The biggest surprise for me is that the free agent signings have ALL exceeded even our wildest expectations. Perez was supposed to be a back-end starter and long-man. He's now the #3 and has great numbers. Schoop, we were just hoping he'd hit 20 HRs and fill the short term hole at 2B. He'll do that and probably more. Cruz, we crossed our fingers and bet he had more in the tank. He does. Cron, we flipped a coin and bet last year wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. Parker's done what's been asked for the most part, it wasn't a bad signing. Literally none of these guys have crashed and burned - to the contrary they've been huge additions that have pushed this team from a borderline .500 ballclub to a team that's 20 games over at the break.
  7. bighat
    Didn't see the Buxton play and finally went back to watch it. I figured there's nothing wrong with trying to be aggressive and Buxton should always try and tag...what nobody mentioned here was that there was a runner on 3rd tagging also. Yeeps, yeah that was a bad play. That said, he was only barely out! All said and done, I hope Buxton continues to be aggressive. We can rail on Buxton all we want, and yeah he'd like a do over, but this offense has been really boom-or-bust lately and they need to be more consistent.
  8. bighat
    Call me a conspiracy theorist but I think this is kinda by design. The Twins have had a huge lead most of the first half and have basically put every starter the 10-day IL. CJ Cron, for example, was pretty obviously the next guy who needed a break and the Twins gave it to him. Schoop had a break in KC a couple weeks ago with that "sore shoulder". We aren't going to see these kind of rests just given to the team in the 2nd half. I'm not worried about seeing these little nicks and bumps give the Twins problems - it's the pitching staff I'm worried about.
  9. bighat
    Sadly, I agree - worst color commentator I've heard in the Twins booth in a long time. Maybe when pickings are slim, the Twins should just bring in Smalley again. Roy seems to be on the "B Team" of color guys but he can fill in well. Speaking of filling in, the Twins need someone to step up. I think with Mejia, there's nothing more they can do with him and he'll be placed on waivers. I just don't know how you keep him on the active roster when you bring in other arms to help out. I'm both thrilled to be up 5.5 games on the Indians and also disappointed to be up 5.5 games on the Indians. Anyone else kinda torn on how to feel about this team right now? I think they basically played out of their minds for 2 months and have come back to earth. Cleveland is feasting off Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit and Cincy. And they get Kluber back in a month, right?
  10. bighat
    Well, 6:45am flight tomorrow says it's time to turn off the game. Hope I miss something good. Go Twins.
  11. bighat
    Polanco was supposed to sit today before Marwin came down with a toe injury.
  12. bighat
    Cleveland now 7 games back. They play the Royals on Wednesday. A's have a great record against above .500 teams this year and they're now just 7 back of Houston. A win tonight would really right the ship. Hope Rocco has a motivational speech in his bag of tricks, might come in handy. Nice to see the bats heat up yesterday, but pitching has really not been what it once was earlier in the year. Twins need help, soon. The more bad outings the starters have, the higher the price gets for pitchers. Trade talk will be the significant focus of this board until the end of the month. How soon will the Twins add talent? Here's a look back to last year's trade dates: July 27: Escobar for Duran, De la Trinidad, & Maciel July 30: Lynn for Tyler Austin & Rojo July 30: Duke for Chase De Jong & Costello July 31: Dozier for Forsythe, Smelztzer & Raley It will be nice to be on the other side of the fence this year. Just hoping our front office makes some deals before July 27!
  13. bighat
    The White Sox GM has all but confirmed the Sox aren't going to make any additions at the deadline. They're almost done with their rebuild and aren't going to tear anything down. Look for the A's and Rangers to go hard at the WC though - two teams the Twins face very soon.
  14. bighat
    For as human as the Twins have looked this June, the Indians have only gained 1.5 games in the standings since June 1st. The Tribe is playing better and with Kluber and a few other starters on the mend, I don't think they're going away. That said, they might not be making a hard charge, either. Consecutive 13-0 losses at Baltimore must have felt like a gut punch, especially when the Twins were treading water. They lost their weekend series against an inferior opponent, just like Minnesota. Miguel Sano put the ball in play and didn't strike out. Cautiously optimistic he's working out of that hole. Buxton had a double (great play by the Sox reliever to nab him at 3rd). And a great catch, glad he's back! Gonzalez is back and working off the rust. Cruz is on absolute fire. Gonna be a tough series in Oakland. The A's have a very good record against teams over .500 and they have been playing great ball, working themselves into the WC picture. They have a lot to play for right now.
  15. bighat
    There have been some great articles about all of these targets - thanks TD for putting these together! Seriously where else could you find this kind of comprehensive covereage? Free? Anyway, out of all of these options, Kennedy is definitely not my favorite. Guy's been around since the Carter administration, it seems. Always reminded me of a Kevin Correia for whatever reason. Just seems that with so many other options, Kennedy should definitely be Plan C or Plan D (if other deals don't work out or the cost is too high). I wouldn't mind if he showed up in a Twins uniform, but I hope he's not the headliner of the summer. I see others here think differently and that's cool.
  16. bighat
    For those that don't want to include Lewis or Kiriloff - here's your third choice: Yankees win the ALDS matchup 3 games to 1. It sucks to lose guys we've hoped to see in a Twins uniform but maybe their best contribution they can make would be as trade pieces. What if the Twins would have traded Sano for Max Scherzer a few years back? Remember that no prospects are sure things, no matter how high they're ranked.
  17. bighat
    Right, grounding into a double play or lining into a double play is worse. But we can't assume a double play, as the old saying goes. Point to you though, you got me. So did you understand my point? Striking out isn't "just like any other out". Striking out can be bad. Striking out is worse than outs which move runners over or get runners home.
  18. bighat
    A sacrifice fly is much better way to make an out than striking out.
  19. bighat
    When the bases are loaded with 1 out, a strikeout is the worst out. When there's a man on 3rd with 1 out, a strikeout is worse than most other outs. I can go on and on. Strikeouts are indeed worse than other outs, in many cases. You have to take into account that the Twins were cruising WITHOUT Sano this year. The Twins also will have other options at 3rd: Gonzalez, Astudillo, Adrianza and even Arraez. This is not a season where the Twins can just let a guy go and figure things out for a season while we rebuild. This is a team that needs to win the division and can realistically compete for a WS title. Sano is a beloved player by many of us and we all want him to succeed. But we can't all just sit around and be Pollyannas about everything just because he's wearing a Twins jersey. He's got issues and striking out 40% of the time shows it.
  20. bighat
    Amazing seasons for both Polanco and Kepler - right after the Twins signed them both to long-term deals. Fantastic both for the players and for the franchise, can't understate how much those contracts help this team. Jorge deserves the nod, glad he got it. How on earth did Lamonte Wade Jr. not get an at-bat this game. It's 18 innings and the team has scored 2 runs...what could you lose by putting him in? Maybe he'd make contact or drill one to the gap, seems like he should have at least got a chance. Nice to see Perez right the ship! The last extra-inning game against the Red Sox had out boys burned out for a week. Let's hope they learned something from the first experience...I don't think they'll have as big of a letdown as they did last time. Who's being reinstated? Buxton? Adrianza? Gonzalez? Corresponding moves? Is the Rochester Bullpen Shuttle leaving the station? Here's hoping we hear something from the Twins on activations and moves soon.
  21. bighat
    Pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly.
  22. bighat
    Honeymoon's over, dude. We've been hearing this for the past 5 years. Trevor May will be turning 30 years old before the season ends. He's got a career 4.79 ERA in over 250 innings pitched. What you see is what he is. There's no more time to develop. He is a average-to-fringe bullpen guy who, when he's "feeling it", can strike out anyone in baseball. He is also going to give up runs, period. We all like the guy but it's time to stop pretending he's going to change.
  23. bighat
    Elias Sports Bureau has a stat called "Productive Outs" - basically shows when batters succeed when they have an opportunity to make a productive out. Schoop's 9.5% rate is the lowest on the team - Sano's the next lowest at 14.3%. Schoop has been up in 21 such situations and has only made a productive out twice. Bunting or not last night, we shouldn't be surprised he struck out on 3 pitches in that situation. Schoop's found his way down to the bottom of the order for a reason. I think taking cheap shots at Rocco for Schoop's ineptitude is passing the buck. He's a decent defender and he'll suffice, but I've been souring on Schoop for a while now and that bat AB last night is on him. Great to see Cruz come through! What an addition he's been. Odorizzi's shaky, not worried yet. May once again shows why he doesn't belong in close games. Rogers was money once again! Rosario had been on absolute fire and his absence will hurt. Hope he gets well soon.
  24. bighat
    I think the Twins are so deep that they're pretty insulated - at least on offense - from letting the injury bug really bite them. Good article.
  25. bighat
    Indians melt down in the 9th and lose, Twins cruise. Garver and Schoop go deep, Eddie gets 4 hits, Astudillo goes 3-for-4 and has a great defensive play. Sano K's three times. He's got 53 strikeouts in 109 ABs this year. Kepler, gotta assume he sits tonight. Tough loss. Hope that guy gets an All-Star reserve pick, dude's on pace for 38 HR and 100 RBI.
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